Tony Rea has stated the Toulouse Olympique game was a worthwhile exercise despite the scoreline.
Rea’s men beat Toulouse 34-0 on Saturday evening in a wet and muddy Stade Arnaune but not only does he believe Toulouse put up a tough test he also says the Broncos had to earn the right to win.
“From our point of view it was really worthwhile,” said Rea.
“Toulouse threw some really good stuff at us; they are a really physical and they done some really good things. Obviously the conditions were difficult and affected both teams massively.
“We were always going to do that [start with a strong line-up], we didn’t really want to go really long game time before we play next week, we also wanted to respect Toulouse and their game and have our guys go out and earn that game.”
Asked why he had learnt from the defensive game Rea said: “Mainly the stuff around the ruck, it wasn’t really one for defending edges or wide sweeping plays. It was more about in the contact areas and markers.
“The big thing is we played as a team and a group, everyone was consistent across the whole team.”
Rea also wanted to thank Toulouse for their hospitality and wished them well for the future saying:
“I’d like to compliment Toulouse; they kept coming at us both with the ball and in defence for 80 minutes. A lot of clubs talk about being in Super League and having ambition. One thing that’s really impressed us with Toulouse is that they are doing it, they’ve invited us over and they are going to make this happen, they’ve stated their intention.”
Ahead of the second pre-season friendly in France against Catalan Dragons in Perpignan on Wednesday (kick-off 7pm local time) Rea says he’ll review the tapes but is likely to use a smaller squad for the game.
“We’ll change it a bit and go into longer periods [of time on the pitch] with a smaller squad.”
Catalan Dragons v London Broncos, kick-off 7pm local time, Gilbert Brutus.
